Details

Parish church. 1906-7. By Edward S Prior; A Randall Wells site
architect. Principal benefactor John Priestman. Inscriptions
by Eric Gill; interior has painted plaster by MacDonald Gill
to design by Prior, further E Gill inscriptions, and stained
glass by HA Payne. Marsden magnesian limestone rubble,
reinforced concrete arches, purlins, and tracery. Roof stone
slates. Sanctuary, E tower over one-bay chancel, choir with N
vestry and S morning chapel in transepts, 4-bay nave with W
baptistry, N and S porches, and SE morning chapel porch. Free
Gothic style.
EXTERIOR: windows have innovative tracery of triangular-headed
lights, Saxon style, some with transoms and some with
horizontal lattice tracery, mullions polygonal and unmoulded.
Canted corners to sanctuary and transepts, hexagonal
buttresses to tower. Nave buttresses are shallow, rising from
plane of wall below sills and coped below eaves. Above these,
and behind the sloped coping of the nave walls, internal piers
rise through the roof to show as transverse buttresses with
gabled coping. High gabled sanctuary has canted corners and
5-light window, the masonry radiating from the window head.
3-stage tower has tall first stage with 3-light N and S
windows; second stage has small rectangular lights; top
5-light windows with elliptical heads recessed under triple
chamfers which spring from angle buttresses. Stepped parapets
of tower are flanked by pierced buttress parapets. Tower has
NW round stair turret with single triangular-headed lights and
gabled roof with small quadrant arch leaning against tower.
Similar lights in N gable of vestry. Morning chapel has large
5-light pointed-arched window with rectilinear intersecting
tracery and similar transoms; double mullions and transoms in
circular E light; canted corners. Nave walls in 2 planes, the
lower part stone-coped forming sills to windows which are
recessed between shallow, coped buttresses in same plane as
lower wall. Monopitch roofs of shallow porches are continuous
with window-sill coping, the SW porch projecting from the
baptistry. Dedication inscription by Eric Gill on SE corner of
tower.
INTERIOR: rubble except for painted plaster in chancel and
sanctuary. Chancel tapers to sanctuary and has painted domed
vault under tower; choir has diagonal arches across transepts
making wider opening to nave. Triangular-section piers between
windows rest on flat, roughly-tooled soffits extending from
walls to pairs of slender hexagonal ashlar columns, forming
low narrow aisles; from these prinicipal piers spring window
rerearches at a high level in one direction and massive
cruck-shaped nave arches from the base in the other. These
piers pass through the roof as noted above. Big concrete
purlins carry the oak rafters. Baptistry with stone bowl font
by AR Wells has carved hexagonal piers, and wood cover by
Thompson of Kilburn, and is under the centre of the arch
formed by wider W piers against which the N and S porches
lean. Panelled sanctuary and choir, high boarded nave dado,
furnishings and fittings of highest quality throughout in the
spirit of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
E window has stained glass Ascension, and S morning Chapel
Christ the Comforter, by Payne; E morning chapel window with
signs of the Evangelists made by Thompson and Snee, Gateshead,
and said to be designed by Burne-Jones. Other windows clear
glass with special qualities of texture and brilliance; some
windows in poor condition at time of survey but restoration
work is expected to start soon.
The building combines vernacular and modern materials in a
completely new approach to church architecture; the whole a
rare artistic achievement.
(The Architects' Journal: Reprint of Illustrated Article by
Dean Hawkes: 30 January 1985; The Parish Church of St Andrew,
Roker, Guide Book (plan): Sunderland).

Listing NGR: NZ4040859380

Selected Sources

Books and journals'Architects Journal' in 30 January, (1985)OtherGuide Book for the Parish Church of St Andrew Roker Sunderland,

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